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Apple Switches (Mostly) To OpenStreetMap
beelsebob writes "In the recent release of iPhoto for iOS it appears that Apple has started using OpenStreetMap's data. Unfortunately, there are still some problems. Apple is currently not applying the necessary attribution to OSM; they are using an old (from April 2010) dump of the data; and they are not using the data in the U.S. Fingers crossed that Apple works through these issues quickly! Apple is now one of a growing list (including geocaching, and foursquare) to Switch2OSM."
Apple not properly crediting others for their inventions! No way!
To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Planet.osm#BitTorrent
Yeah. Because Apple never gives back to the digital community. Oh. Wait. http://www.apple.com/opensource/
So, yeah, I'll take that bet.
Whilst OSM is very good for free data, there are still pockets of areas where the coverage is very poor indeed. I had to map out half of my uncle's town as it just wasn't there on OSM (about 9 months ago). At every stage, it's getting better, but the more 'big players' that start to switch to it, the more momentum it will get and the better the coverage will be as more contributors flow in.
This is especially the case as parts of the OSM dataset are about to be wiped out due to the forthcoming remapping.
They are using OpenStreetMap in one iOS photo editing application that costs $5. I would hardly call that "mostly switching." More like the first toe in the water.
Wait really? Germany? Poor maps on OSM? The german mappers go into insane level of detail –take a look at Berlin for example.
I'm in the process of implementing an editor and viewer for iOS called OpenStreetPad, if you love the idea, feel free to contribute!
this is supposedly needed to make the Siri UX good enough for Apple's standards.
As long as Apple have an excuse they'll use it to try and persuade people to upgrade. Siri would have worked on the iPhone 4. Yes, it would have worked better on the 4S but I'd be astonished if the reason it was not on the 3G/3GS/4S was technical and not marketing.
Really? It would honestly astonish you that Siri would require any development, testing, QA, integration, sales, administrative, or other costs? It would be completely free? Or do you not consider paying for engineering talent a "technical" cost? Because otherwise, it makes a lot of sense for Apple to invest money on their profitable products instead of their old ones. Apple already does so much better than Android, Windows Mobile, and others at supporting old hardware with the latest releases that I see little room for complaint. The iPhone 3GS is many years old and yet got iOS 5.1 the day it was released!
E pluribus unum
The problem with German GPS is it only gives you directions to Warsaw.
I'm unsure what that URL is meant to show because all it shows to me is that they include open-source software as part of OS X. We know that. It's what this article is about.
Your comment was related to whether Apple contribute code back. That page has no information about Apple returning code at all. Stop spreading misinformation.
Now, the facts.
Apple contribute code back. A fair bit of code has been accepted into FreeBSD from Apple. Do they contribute back as much as they should, ethically? That's debatable, personally I'd say no. Recently they're reducing their open-source efforts too (CUPS).
Why can't people just discuss things normally rather than having all this pro-Apple / anti-Apple garbage?
The past story with khtml webkit, and the recent story about apple-only planned features in CUPS, and the general attitude of big and small commercial entities towards free software, should make people just a little wary.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
You misunderstood his comment. From his perspective as a German, the attention to detail in OSM is lacking. I mean, in that example, there is no mention of where the nearest trash can is or where the stop signs are located.
I wish I was kidding. Germans are a unique breed when it comes to detail and rules.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
There's a lot of data that's only in OpenStreetMap, as compared to the other big map data providers like Navteq. In addition to roads, OpenStreetMap has bicycle paths, pedestrian paths, hiking trails, and a host of other things that are not generally collected in other general-purpose road databases. At least one person on the OSM mailing lists has pointed to an area where he added some but not all of the hiking trails in an area and Apple is showing only the trails he added to OpenStreetMap. Even more conclusive, though, is that when you overlay the two on each other, such as at http://ivan.sanchezortega.es/leaflet-apple.php , there are quite a lot of places where the data matches exactly--not just "both have a road here", but "every point making up Apple's road lies exactly on top of a point making up OpenStreetMap's road".
355/113 -- Not the famous irrational number PI, but an incredible simulation!
Every time I see a map rendered with different colors and a different style as Google Maps I immediately feel how much I prefer the Google Maps style. Is it only me or is the rendering really that refined that it's just so much easier to spot things and therefore feels better?
WebKit, LLVM/clang, and yes, they even did a lot for CUPS, and zillions of bugfixes across many products. And if you're an OS wonk, you can even look at the entire MacOS X kernel source code and borrow if you'd like, as well as many of the low-level processes that make MacOS interesting. It's true that many of these were not taken up by other products, but that's hardly Apple's fault.
E pluribus unum
Simple roadmap for you: If it is within Apple's Patents they are stingy. When it is outside of Apple's Patents they can be very generous.
Simple translation for you: If it's theirs they are stingy. If it's yours they share freely.
It is what it is, don't put makeup on it.
The past story with khtml webkit
You mean the one where the KHTML devs complained that Apple was doing big changeset dumps making them hard to merge, so Apple switched to using a public svn repository? Or the one where committed sandboxing to WebKit in a way that (unlike Chrome's) is browser-agnostic and so can be used by other WebKit users?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Huh? I got great navigation from Berlin to Moscow. Well, *almost* to Moscow. The whole app did freeze up when I was about 20 miles out.